Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your "shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, and wood chopping motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and holidays. Baffled? Intrigued? Charmed? Discuss here.

Yay! I made a "new month's resolution" of doing shovelglove (or in my case, skilletglove) every day for the month of February, and I started on the last Monday of January, because I didn't want to start in the middle of the week/Feb 1 was a Wednesday.

And! Unlike every other exercise regimen that I've tried to stick to in the past two years, I have done it every day since I started, with Sundays off! It's gotten to where I really like that mild "rush" of getting my heart rate up a bit. It isn't quite the same as a full blown cardio workout, but it does get the blood running, and that feels good.

Even better, I think I'm seeing a downtrend FINALLY on the scale. But I don't want to say I've actually lost anything until the lower number sticks for a while.

Also, some of the moves are getting a lot easier with my five lb skillet. Some remain brutal, especially the overhead stuff like "noisy neighbors" or "post driver" ... eventually I guess I'll bite the bullet and get an eight lb sledge hammer.

Either way, I'm excited to fill up February's skilletglove habitcal with green. it is actually my biggest motivator.